:01:12
Fifteen hundred years ago a small band
of Polynesian voyagers discovered
:01:16
...one of the most remote
islands on earth.
:01:20
And began a mystery
that still endures.
:01:23
The band and their chief,
Hotu Matu'a,
:01:26
Settled the lush oasis, and were
lost to the world for the next 1,000 years.
:01:34
European sailors rediscovered the
island and named it Easter Island.
:01:38
The Europeans found a barren,
treeless place,
:01:41
Inhabited by numerous warring clans
:01:46
And the gigantic stone statues
built over centuries
:01:50
As a form of ancestor worship.
:01:51
Hotu Matu'a's descendants called the island
Navel of the World, Rapa Nui.
:01:56
And centuries of isolation
had convinced them
:02:00
They were the only people
left on earth.
:02:02
Still, no one knows why the
statues were so large,
:02:06
Or why work on them suddenly ceased.
:02:09
But legend speaks of a terrible
conflict between the clans
:02:12
A few decades before the Europeans